2003 Symposium on VLSI Circuits

The International Symposium on VLSI Circuits will meet 12-14 June 2003 at the Rihga Royal Hotel, Kyoto, Japan. The Symposium consists of three days of technical presentations and informal evening rump sessions. The Symposium on VLSI Technology precedes the Circuits Symposium at the same hotel, and the one-day overlap in the schedules for the Technology and Circuits meetings features a circuit Short Course on low-power RF design, as well as a joint rump session. The two Symposia cover the two major technical areas of interest in the industry and academia around the world.
This year the technical program committee reviewed 206 submissions to the conference and chose 88 papers for presentation and publication at the Symposium. This large number of top-quality technical papers results in a technical conference that will be bigger and better than ever. That is why you do not want to miss this unveiling of unprecedented technical papers, featuring new and innovative demonstrations of leading-edge concepts.
The scope of the Circuits Symposium covers all aspects of VLSI circuits, such as:

The emphasis in the Circuit Symposium is on circuit design. Papers are chosen on the basis of originality and quality. Although it is not necessary for the circuits to be implemented in a semiconductor chip, measured results, particularly for analog submissions, are a key selection criterion. There will be four invited papers covering the semiconductor industry, RF CMOS, open and real-time embedded systems, and nanoelectronic circuits.

About the Venue
The Rihga Royal Hotel is located west of Kyoto, the old capital of Japan, which attracts many visitors from all over the world. The JR Kyoto station was totally rennovated and modernized in 1997, so now you can enjoy the combination of a modern station building along with the traditional Kyoto cityscape. For further information, please visit the Web site of the Kyoto Convention Bureau (which also provides a look at the history and culture of Kyoto) at web.kyoto-inet.or.jp/org/hellokcb/index.html.

Technical Highlights
This year we have selected several interesting papers in areas that are at the forefront of integrated circuit design. The highlights of this conference include a fast 128-Kb MRAM core for universal memory applications, a 64-Mb embedded FeRAM in 130-nm technology, and 32-KB gate-leakage suppressed SRAM in 90-nm technology. The high-speed circuit papers include a 40-GHz frequency divider in 0.18-micron technology, a die droop detector for power supply noise characterization, and a 3-Gb/s spread spectrum SerDes. Furthermore, a single-chip GPS receiver with 24-mW radio in 0.18-micron CMOS and a CMOS/SOI Bluetooth RF transceiver highlight advances in wireless circuits.

Invited Speakers
Invited papers are always the high point of the Symposium, focusing on both technical and business implications of technological changes, presented by academic and industry leaders. This year Dr. Tetsuya Iizuka from THine Electronics presents a paper titled "Semiconductor industry-the name of the game;" Professor Asad Abidi discusses "RF-CMOS comes of age;" Professor Ken Sakamura describes "T-engine: the open, real-time embedded-systems platform for ubiquitous computing;" and Professor Mark Lundstrom enlightens us on "A top-down look at bottom-up electronics (nanoelectronic circuits)."

Rump Sessions
Evening rump sessions are organized around controversial topics and experts are invited to present their divergent views. All aspects of the controversy are explored, and a spirited discussion ensues; active audience participation is encouraged! This year the rump session topics for the Circuits Symposium are:

These rump session topics give a good idea of controversies plaguing the industry. There are several emerging memory technologies-is there any such thing as a unified memory? Are universities doing an adequate job of educating analog designers, or does industry have to teach graduates what they need to know? What will make reconfigurable computing a success? All of these issues will be debated at rump sessions by the experts, and we hope that you will enjoy them.

Overlap Day
A special feature of the Symposium is the one-day overlap in the schedules for the Technology and Circuits meetings. This is an excellent opportunity to meet with members of the opposite discipline to share experiences, issues, and ideas for future improvements. In addition, there is also a joint rump session organized by members of both the Circuits and Technology committees. This year's topic is "Judgement day for power management?"

VLSI Circuits Short Course
Dr. Hisayasu Sato (Mitsubishi) and Professor Travis Blalock (University of Virginia) have organized an excellent one-day Short Course titled "Low-power wireless design" on Wednesday, 11 June. The Short Course includes talks by experts in the field, representing the entire spectrum of the industry and academia:

This Short Course is a condensed one-day course intended to give attendees an excellent overview of the topic as well as to provide the latest developments in the area. This is a rare opportunity to hear timely presentations describing work in a technical area given by recognized leading researchers who teach others to do what they do best.

Further Information
For questions about hotel reservations contact:
Rihga Royal Hotel Kyoto
Horikawa-Shiokoji, Shimogyo-ku,
Kyoto 600-8237, Japan
Tel: +81-75-341-1121
Fax: +81-75-341-3073

For registration and other information, visit the VLSI Symposia home page at: www.vlsisymposium.org or see more contact information in the SSCS Events Calendar.

Masakazu Yamashina
Conference Chair
2003 Symposium on VLSI Circuits
yamasina@mel.cl.nec.co.jp

Shekhar Borkar
Conference Co-chair
2003 Symposium on VLSI Circuits
shekhar.y.borkar@intel.com